This article explains how a learning contract helps Mr. Watson, a sixth grade middle school teacher find solutions to his problems regarding his student, Samantha's lack of motivation and self-confidence. A learning contract is a written agreement between teacher and learner in which the learner undertakes to complete mutually agreed upon tasks in…

The "Evaluation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress: Study Reports" describes the special studies that comprised the design of the evaluation. In the Final Report, the authors presented a practical discussion of the evaluation studies to its primary, intended audience, namely policymakers. On this accompanying CD, readers…

The purpose of this study was to learn whether there have been any changes in writing instruction across K-12 education in the past three years. A three-year time frame was chosen to structure the study as it included the time period subsequent to the College Board's first announcement of the SAT writing section (the 2002-03 academic year). The…

This article shares the results of a 3-year study of the use of threaded discussion groups within intact eighth-grade classrooms in a middle school in Southern California. Using mixed-methods data collection and analysis, it addresses questions about how technology may be used effectively to create engaged writers and how student access to…

A study examined college students' responses to writing tasks that were created by their instructors--writing tasks that constituted an important part of the instructors' course designs and that were presented to students as an integral part of the curriculum. In all, approximately 4800 independent evaluations of 796 essays were analyzed. The…

The samples of students' writing found in this document exemplify the criteria used to score students' written responses on the June 1994 Grade 9 English Language Arts Achievement Test. Representative of the full range of students' writing, the examples in the document are intended to be used as tools to assist teachers, students, and…

The summary information in this report provides teachers, school administrators, students, and the general public in Alberta, Canada with an overview of results from the January 1997 administration of the English 33 Diploma Examination. The information in the report is most helpful when used in conjunction with the detailed school and jurisdiction…

A study elaborated on the results of previous research on the effectiveness of the R-WISE (Reading and Writing in a Supportive Environment) software by examining the effects of the student factor of learner-control and the environmental factor of the teacher's preferred instructional style on student writing performance. R-WISE includes 3 specific…

The summary information in this report provides teachers, school administrators, students, and the general public in Alberta, Canada with an overview of results from the June 1998 administration of the English 30 Diploma Examination. The information in the report is most helpful when used in conjunction with the detailed school and jurisdiction…

A practicum addressed the problem of a lack of continuity and consistency in the evaluation of students' papers in grades 6-12. A cohesive, systematic writing evaluation model was designed and implemented for grades 6-12. Teachers, administrators, students, and community members collaborated in the development and implementation of the writing…

A study tested the effectiveness of three instructional strategies in three expository text structures on students' reading comprehension and writing performance. Subjects, 173 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: mental modeling, graphic organizer, or a control read/answer group. They received…

A study explored how students of differing writing abilities (high, middle or low) approached a revising task that called for both editing (surface level changes) and revising (meaning level changes) and the effect that marking error location had on students' ability to detect and correct the two kinds of errors. Subjects, 12 seventh graders, were…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) issued two reports in 1990 assessing the nation's current educational abilities in reading and writing. The "Reading Report Card, 1971-88" presented and analyzed results over an 18-year period for ages 9, 13, and 17 years (grades 4, 8, and 11, respectively). The 9-year-olds and…

This demonstration booklet illustrates the kind of exercises or test questions and tasks used in the assessment of student achievement in reading and writing by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for 2002. Each student will be asked to complete the background section and the cognitive sections for one subject, and the…

This demonstration booklet illustrates the kind of exercises or test questions and tasks used in the assessment of student achievement in reading and writing by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for 2002. Each student will be asked to complete the background section and the cognitive sections for one subject, and the…